By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited depreciated by 1.12 per cent on Thursday as investors booked profit in Dangote Cement, Oando, FBN Holdings, Ardova and 14 other stocks.
From the analysis of the trading details, industrial goods, insurance and energy sectors were the major drivers of the loss as they shed 3.25 per cent, 1.79 per cent and 0.48 per cent respectively.
The trio suppressed the respective 1.77 per cent and 1.08 per cent gains posted by the consumer goods and banking sectors, leaving the All-Share Index (ASI) down by 520.76 points to 46,009.23 points from 46,529.99 points and the market capitalisation down by N280 billion to N24.793 trillion from N25.073 trillion.
NEM Insurance was the heaviest price loser of the session as its value went down by 8.57 per cent to N3.20, Dangote Cement lost 8.53 per cent to sell at N260.60, AIICO Insurance depreciated by 5.00 per cent to 76 kobo, Ardova fell by 4.96 per cent to N12.45, while Multiverse declined by 4.76 per cent to 20 kobo.
There were 25 appreciating equities during the trading session and were led by Guinness Nigeria and International Breweries, which gained 10.00 per cent each to trade at N46.75 and N5.50 respectively.
Ecobank appreciated by 9.63 per cent to sell for N11.95, Prestige Assurance rose by 9.52 per cent to 46 kobo, while Unilever Nigeria grew by 7.28 per cent to N14.00.
Yesterday, investors traded a total of 279.4 million stocks valued at N2.8 billion in 4,582 deals in contrast to the 329.0 million stocks worth N4.8 billion traded in 4,219 deals a day earlier.
This indicated that the volume of shares went down by 15.06 per cent, the value of shares declined by 42.64 per cent and the number of deals appreciated by 8.60 per cent.
A breakdown showed that UPDC REIT dominated the activity chart with a turnover of 46.4 million shares transacted for N181.9 million.
Courteville traded 36.1 million equities for N21.3 million, Transcorp exchanged 16.9 million stocks valued at N18.3 million, GTCO transacted 16.1 million equities valued at N409.7 million, while Multiverse sold 10.7 million shares worth N2.2 million.
